By Ibrahim Ramalan
From time immemorial, film is one form of art that appeals to the senses of beauty and aesthetics through its unique means of communication and visuals. While also playing important roles in the development of any groups of people, ethnicity, and race as a nation or country, film is a veritable tool of national development.
One of the key areas in which it performs this duty is in the realm of culture. Film is a purveyor of culture, for it helps to preserve the culture of a people from eroding away, hence the emergence of indigenous film outfits in the country.
Today in Nigeria, there is a lot of competing indigenous film industries for Yoruba, Igbo, Ibira, Nupe, etc. and Kannywood, a Hausa-speaking film industry that is domiciled across the North but with the marketing hub and production in Kano and Kaduna states, is one of them.
Having been around for decades, in terms of reception, so far the industry has been pairing very well in the market and by all indications, the future and prospect of the film industry defies boundaries.
However, what the industry lacks or direly needs is technical support from the government and private sector in order to boost its production quality and efficiency in tandem with the current global best practices.
When government recently proposed to establish a billion Naira worth of a film village that was modeled to be like a film centre obtainable in China and India to support film production and job creation in the state and the region of the country as a whole, Blueprint gathered that a lot of the industry stakeholders warmly welcomed the idea. However, hypocrisy and vested interest swallowed the idea and it is now a history.
As if such idea or dream was successfully subdued or shattered completely, another village of that nature has recently surfaced in Kaduna state from a private quarters, a retired general to be precise, Mohammad Kabir Galadanci, the CEO of Stone Walls Limited who has set up a 3 to 4 thousand-capacity semi film village with about 6 highly-furnished different bedrooms, sitting rooms with different set-ups, high-capacity utility vehicles (luxurious) numbering up to 7 and sophisticatedly picturesque environment that can cater for different needs of film producers to shoot A-grade films.
Blueprint observes that the film village, which is located at Barikin Ladi, a suburb of Kaduna state opposite National Teachers Institute (NTI), along Kaduna-Zaria road, will certainly affect the trajectory of the whole Kannywood movie industry because the caliber of the facilities and the serene environment will go a long way in portending a brighter future of film production in the industry.
More so, according to Kannywood observers, the future and prospect of the industry to defy boundaries and rage through continents beyond Africa never looks bleak, even to the incurable pessimists, because there is no icing on the cake that the industry is next to none in terms of churning out blockbuster movies that easily find its way into the international markets.
Speaking to newsmen about the project recently, Galadanci enthused that after retirement, one of the ways in which he could give back to his society was to put up such a multi-million Naira project that could touch positively on the lives of many young Nigerians, adding that so far, he had put in over 100 million into the project and more is still to be sunk in.
He added that his unbridled effort to complement government’s effort in the area of generating employment, especially at this crucial time of diversifying the economy from oil dependency, made him to look in that direction and from the reception and attention the project has stated getting he had nothing to regret about.
On the choice of Kaduna for the location of the village, the retired general said he carefully selected the location having in mind that next to Kano in terms of Hausa film production is Kaduna state – Kano’s very neighboring state where a lot of the actors and actresses resides.
According to him, people have to come together and extend their goodwill towards reforming the industry, rather than sitting back and watch it degenerate into morality hodgepodge.
“Looking at the erroneous impressions that a lot of people in the society are holding against the industry and its actors, I think we need to contribute towards fighting against it. It’s a money spinning industry, we can’t afford to watch it die or go into abyss. Rather, we need to come together to change the order of things. Otherwise, the repercussions will not mean well for the generality of the people,” he stressed.
To kick-off the project, the CEO said he would be organizing a Sallah show for this forthcoming Eid el Kabir celebration where crème de la crème of the movie industry are expected to grace the occasion.
